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| Winter retreat at the B Bar Ranch. February, 2011. |
In the summer of 2006,
Grow Montana partnered with Montana Campus Compact to launch Montana's FoodCorps, the nation's first statewide team of VISTA volunteers trained to create and grow farm to cafeteria programs. Each FoodCorps member was trained, provided with mentors, and dispatched to a partnering institution.
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| Fall greenhouse training, 2007 |
In FoodCorps' first year alone, Salish Kootenai College purchased 10 percent (up from 0) of its total food budget from seven tribal reservation-area vendors, Montana State University launched a diversified student-run vegetable farm, UM-Western bought so much local beef that a county commissioner is proposing to build a processing plant in the region, and Missoula County Public Schools actually saved money stocking local produce.
Since then, the six original Montana FoodCorps institutions have
returned over $2.5 million dollars to local farmers and ranchers.
Based, in part, on this successful model, in 2011, national FoodCorps launched with 50 members in 10 states.
In August 2012, the Montana FoodCorps and national
FoodCorps programs merged, with the FoodCorps Montana team now working
in ten communities state-wide to help schools serve local, healthy
foods; build and tend school gardens; and educate kids about how and
why to eat food grown closer to home.
FoodCorps Montana 2013-2014 at State Orientation in October
| FoodCorps Montana 2012-2013, with Superintendent of Education Denise Juneau |
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| The first Montana FoodCorps team of MTCC VISTAs, 2006 |
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| MTCC VISTA's with Montana FoodCorps, 2009 |
